Tech leaders to partner with Trump admin on patient records
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Leading tech and health companies including Amazon, Apple, Google, and OpenAI committed on Wednesday to working with the Trump administration to make electronic patient records more accessible across the health care system.
Why it matters: Patient health information is now scattered across multiple disconnected systems, leading to inefficiencies, medical errors and wasted time and money.
- Past federal efforts to get providers and payers to share patient health information in a more seamless way got bogged down by tech glitches, litigation and excessive bureaucracy, and prompted privacy concerns.
Driving the news: The administration on Wednesday won commitments from more than 60 companies to work in two broad areas: promoting an interoperability framework to better share information between patients and providers, and to increase the availability of personalized tools for patients.
- Patients would have to opt in to share their health data and records on new systems and apps that would be administered by the companies.
- Officials said the apps could assist with diabetes and obesity management and include AI assistants to help patients check symptoms and choose care options. New digital check-in methods could reduce paper intake — an effort the administration has dubbed "kill the clipboard."
- "We have the tools and information available now to empower patients to improve their outcomes and their healthcare experience," said Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Mehmet Oz. "We stand ready for a paradigm shift in the U.S. health care system."
Amy Gleason, the acting administrator of DOGE and a former health tech executive, and Arda Kara, who worked at data firm Palantir before joining the administration, have led the medical records push, CNN reported, citing people familiar.
Between the lines: Past administrations have launched efforts to remove barriers between providers, payers and health IT companies.
- But as we've reported, many patients still can't easily access their medical information, and doctors don't always share clinical data with other practitioners.
- Tech firms have invested heavily in consumer health apps. But some direct-to-consumer tools that capture personal health information aren't subject to federal health data privacy laws and have left big tech companies sitting on troves of patient data.
- Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University law professor, said there were major ethical and legal concerns around the new effort. "Patients across America should be very worried that their medical records are going to be used in ways that harm them and their families," he told AP.
